Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

The "hidden leaves" of Yamamoto Tsunetomo were collected, between 1710 and 1716, by a young samurai. Tsunetomo had been a samurai himself, when his original master died. Prevented by imperial command fromfollowing his lord into death, and unable to accept the new lord, Tsunetomo withdrew into monkhood. This collection summarizes the wisdom gained in his career. This book collects passages, a few lines to a page long, on a wandering range of topics. Some reflect on historical events, others on proper behavior, yet others on Zen and bushido. The range of topics appeals to me, making it easy to open the book at random and read until something touches on my current thoughts. One recurring theme is acceptance of human failure, with examples on pp 28, 42, and 113. By analogy, a wooden beam may be a little out of true or hold little knots and weeps, but still be strong and sound - perfect boards are rare, and very rarely needed. He also acknowledges (p.52) that "great genius matures late," that one can not reach the highest achievements without twenty or thirty years of development. This has meaning for me personally, and I hope for the best. I have a few reservations about this translation, no matter how much I like it. It abridges the original 1300-plus passages down to 300, and abandoned the traditional organization of passages. I appreciate the brevity, but I wonder how much this non-native translator may have sacrificed in the abbreviation. This is an important look into the samurai's heart and mind - I do not see that becoming a monk ended his life as a samurai. It is cryptic at times, but describes difficult matters. It is as relevant today as when it was written, almost three centuries ago. //wiredweird

This particular eBook translation - the $0.99 one - is rife with errors in both spelling, translation, and formatting. Bargain bin prices for a reason. == I liked the little bits of philosophy in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. This book is where those quotes were pulled from, and I was very interested in reading it. Aside from the occasional bit of weird commentary, this book does have a lot of interesting lessons from the perspective of a lifelong servant. This is a book that doesn't just teach you what it means to serve - it teaches you what it means to live a life of service. The book itself is also very sturdy and can take quite a bit of abuse. I've spilled a drink on the cover once or twice, I've dropped it... hell, I used it as a coaster, once. And it still lasts to this day. I've since given it away as a gift and I'll be buying it again when I can get a reprint of the same size and quality.

Looks good, I am looking forward to reading it....

This book brought me out of a dark age in my life. I was an Infantryman in the U.S Army for a while. In the beginning I was satisfied. Towards the end I became disillusioned and malcontent. I felt like I had wasted my life, my youth. I was miserable. I first read this book during a winter field rotation. Halfway through the book, I was revitalized, and at the same time ashamed of myself. This book gave me a fresh perspective, which allowed me to pinpoint the things that were making me unhappy. I resolved to change and attempt to make the most of my time. The advice and wisdom contained in this book is timeless. What applied to a Samurai in the past still applies to us today. There are several quotes that have stuck with me and have helped me get through a particularly difficult day, here are a few: " If a retainer will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If its a single day's work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too, is but a single day." " There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything." There are a few dated (O.K a few absurd) pieces of advice in this book. You can easily make the distinction of what can be applied today and what can't. Overall, this book can help put you in the right direction and give you renewed focus. To move forward sometimes you have to look in the past.

This book is very interesting and packed full of wisdom. It’s a must read if you want to learn the old ways of the samurai or gain some different perspectives.

"Hagakure," like a lot of texts and treatises written in and around the Sengoku Jidai (in this case, well after) seem to find themselves a weird second life in the Western world, often ending up as "self-help" books on leadership, business savvy, masculine identity, and laying effective siege to wide-based late period castles, whose massive stoneworks provide a daunting challenge to the kinds of siege engines available to a middle-class American especially in today's marketplace. Seriously, go to Osaka and look at the outer fortifications of Osaka-jou. Even on a weekend, you don't see anyone trying to break in. What most of us know today as "Hagakure" is most likely one of several different collections of passages from the much larger original text, which is now rather hard to find in its complete form in English. In this (Wilson) as in previous collections, it is presented to us as a sampling of parables, adages, and koan-like rhetoric, drawn from a very wide variety of topics and selected on the basis of relevance, ease of understanding, and interest. I own a copy of Hagakure (and bought this newer edition) as a quick illustrative tool when I'm talking with people about pre-modern Japanese history and want to say, "this is what a samurai's life was like. This is how samurai were trained to think, and this is what was expected of them." That, I feel, is the only purpose that "Hagakure" unambiguously serves, and in this respect it (and this edition of it) does well. What it does not, and really should not, do is serve as any kind of "guide to life." You probably wouldn't like someone who based their way of living on this book- it was written as a compilation of advice to members of a social class who were free to kill members of the underclass, spend extravagant amounts of money, and dispense arbitrary justice. It was also written at a point when samurai were becoming increasingly irrelevant to Japan during a long peace, by a person who bemoaned the dilution of the warrior ethic in his own social class, and in many places "Hagakure" does, in fact, make me feel as though I'm listening patiently to a cranky old ojiisan (grandfather) bitching about "kids today." None of this is "Hagakure"'s fault as a book, though. My only direct criticism of this particular text is that I find the selection of passages somewhat questionable, as many of them seem to make very little sense taken out of context- there are passages relating anecdotes of Tsumetomo's former lord, apparently in an effort to show his great wisdom or martial vigor, but without context or elucidation the moral of the story is unclear. There is a very sparing series of footnotes that usually lead back to a very short sentence or two of explanation, but in many cases I still had difficulty understanding the importance of the passage and found many other passages that were NOT footnoted at all but remained contextually unclear to me. The intended moral or illustration of the subject person's character were completely unknowable. I would like to see an edition of "Hagakure" that shares Wilson's clear and smooth English translation with a lot more supporting text. As an interesting period piece and light reading of samurai class culture, it is adequate.

This is my third time buying this particular printing of the hagakure. I have a beat up, years old version of this same hardcover edition without the dust cover, a paperback copy that i lent out and never got back and now this fresh clean brand new hardcover copy. This book helped me discover strength and courage within myself.

I really enjoy this book! But just a few things to keep in mind. It is translated to English, so that can always bring out the possibility of different interpretations from the original text. That being said, the translator for this version is very well educated in Japanese, and did a great job with this book. Also note, as stated in the front of the book, this is not the entire Hagajure, but I am not even sure if there is any full version, at least as far as English translations go. But this has many many quotes and readings for you to enjoy. If you read the entire thing in one day, you are not reading it correctly or as intended. With these types of books it is wise to read a passage, and sit there and think on what you just read. What it truly means. All in all, this is a great book, especially for the price! Enjoy!